# Nail Gel Disaster



## Jim Cunningham (Sep 9, 2012)

Hi all,

I just had my nails done on Friday; normally I get a French gel manicure but decided to switch it up and get color this time. The manicurist did my nails exactly the same way except that she put on a color and then gel over the color (Orly Strip Down).  Within an hour of leaving the salon, the the polish was buckled on four nails and wavy on the rest. Saturday the top layer on several nails began peeling off and the tips on these nails seemed very weakened and broke off.  

The woman who does my nails does an EXCELLENT job, this is very unusual and she will repair my nails at no charge, I'm sure.  I'm just wondering what happened?  Was it the use of color under the gel overlay?

Any insight would be so much appreciated.

Thanks!!


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## Dalylah (Sep 10, 2012)

I haven't personally had gel manicures so I am only going off information that I googled. There are also a few articles with things going wrong when chipped, broken gel manicures are left unattended because they have to be buffed to be removed. I guess I am not answering your original question of what happened but I encourage you to go get it fixed so you don't have damage.


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## zadidoll (Sep 10, 2012)

I've never heard of that happening but I suspect, and mind you this is a guess, is that she used a normal polish underneath first then the gel and didn't cure the gel completely which caused the warping and the nails breaking. It's also possible that the polish formula and gel formula simply were not compatible (analogy: like oil and water). What does she have to say about it? It'd be interesting to get her to repeat the procedure on a mannequin hand to see if she can replicate the problem then eliminate the polish or the curing time to see if one of those was the problem.


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## Tyari (Sep 10, 2012)

I think it's because she used a regular polish with a gel polish. They're incompatible.


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## Sheila5561 (Sep 10, 2012)

I use regular polish and top it off with a clear gel top coat all the time as long as the regular nail polish has completely dried before putting the gel on top its okay. The reason your polish got all jacked up was because the nail polish had not completely cured and then putting the gel on top seals it not allowing it to air dry therefore makes the nail polish move underneath and ripple. 

A nail tech should know not to do this.


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## missy plush (Sep 13, 2012)

it seem to make sense that the polish will react that way if it is not completely dry!! hope she managed to fix it!


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## Jim Cunningham (Sep 13, 2012)

Hi there, Dalylah,zadidoll, Beautijunki, Sheila5561, and missy plush, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!   Here's what happened....Nail person offered to repair damage asap, and most of them are off again -  the same thing happened where the gel separated from the tip and the tips were fragile, kept breaking off, etc.  So I'm thinking as you all suggested that it could be that the polish/gel mixture was incompatible, the polish wasn't allowed to dry long enough, or maybe it's even my own body chemistry??  She was very apologetic and is going to do a complete do-over now, back to the normal gel French I've been getting for the whole time I've been going to her.  I believe that is what she does for the majority of her customers and I never had any trouble whatsoever before.  In fact, her nails are basically indestructible which is why this was so weird.  I just decided that if I want to play with color, (I'm getting in to the whole frankening/indie polish scene) I will just do that over the gels.   She does an amazing job except for this one glitch and was very insistent on making it right without charging me.  

Thank you so much for all your insight, and if you think of anything else let me know.  This was super weird and I thought I was going crazy to all of a sudden have this bad reaction.


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## zadidoll (Sep 13, 2012)

Thanks for the update. Hopefully the new manicure works out.  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />


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## Dalylah (Sep 13, 2012)

> Originally Posted by *Jim Cunningham* /img/forum/go_quote.gif
> 
> Hi there, Dalylah,zadidoll, Beautijunki, Sheila5561, and missy plush, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!   Here's what happened....Nail person offered to repair damage asap, and most of them are off again -  the same thing happened where the gel separated from the tip and the tips were fragile, kept breaking off, etc.  So I'm thinking as you all suggested that it could be that the polish/gel mixture was incompatible, the polish wasn't allowed to dry long enough, or maybe it's even my own body chemistry??  She was very apologetic and is going to do a complete do-over now, back to the normal gel French I've been getting for the whole time I've been going to her.  I believe that is what she does for the majority of her customers and I never had any trouble whatsoever before.  In fact, her nails are basically indestructible which is why this was so weird.  I just decided that if I want to play with color, (I'm getting in to the whole frankening/indie polish scene) I will just do that over the gels.   She does an amazing job except for this one glitch and was very insistent on making it right without charging me.
> 
> Thank you so much for all your insight, and if you think of anything else let me know.  This was super weird and I thought I was going crazy to all of a sudden have this bad reaction.


I'm glad you got them fixed and that was nice she did it for free. That's a good way to keep customers.


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